President Bill Clinton
Sep 10th, 2010 5:45 PM UTC
By Field
Last night, former President Bill Clinton was in Nashville, Tennessee in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter. Unfortunately, my prime place along the fence didn’t stick and I had to move when it started to rain, and some large men in black suits shortened the greeting line.
I did manage to scoot my way up in the crowd though, as fmr. Pres. Clinton worked his way down the line of eager supporters. I was several people back, but proudly held my ONE band high, managing to catch the former president’s eye.
He reached over several heads to take the ONE band then shook my hand and said “Thank you for what you do.” I had just enough time to shout back, “No, thank you!” before he was swept away. Though a brief interaction, it was a significant one. It’s important for influential people in global policy to know just how many ONE members are out there and how crucial it is that they continue to advocate for the world’s poorest people. Go ONE!!
- Abby Sasser, ONE congressional district leader for Tennessee’s 5th District
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Today, I joined ONE members at a rally for Pennsylvania Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.). Rep. Sestak was stuck in Washington, D.C., however, former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) were there to fill in.
Pennsylvania ONE member Amanda Modispaw was able to speak with Clinton and thanked him for saving lives in Africa and Haiti.
She also made sure to mention that more than 40,000 ONE members signed a petition urging world leaders to make good on their pledges to rebuild Haiti. Clinton thanked Amanda and ONE for the support and said that he definitely noticed our ONE T-shirts in the crowd when he was speaking.
I was also able to speak with Sen. Casey about his hard work on global food security issues and informed him that all ONE members were making calls to their senators and urging them to sign on to the Lugar-Casey letter, which asks the Senate to pass the Global Food Security Act.
I thanked Sen. Casey, who was happy to put on a ONE band, but he told me that it was our ONE members who should be thanked for their advocacy efforts. This is only the beginning of ONE Vote 2010 and we’re off to a tremendous start lending our voices for the world’s poorest people.
Live in Pennsylvania? Follow Brian on Twitter or join ONE’s Mid-Atlantic Region Facebook Group.
This week, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an effort to improve economies in sub-Saharan Africa, celebrates its 10th anniversary. ONE global policy intern Nathan Cole gives us a recap of AGOA’s annual forum.
Last week, experts on U.S.-African trade met at the annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum to discuss its progress since it was signed into law in 2000.
AGOA gives beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to U.S. markets by allowing many products from these countries to be imported duty free. International trade is essential for development in Africa, and AGOA offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to grow economically by exporting more to the U.S.
In the past ten years, AGOA has made progress in fostering U.S. trade with Africa. Currently, 38 countries are eligible to participate in AGOA. As Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) noted in the AGOA Civil Society Forum two weeks ago, “AGOA’s been a great success … it’s time to celebrate.” The Act has promoted new trade and investment, and it has created some 300,000 jobs in Africa. AGOA is also helping to create new markets in the U.S.
However, as Sen. Cardin also noted, several challenges still remain. For example, most of the increase in trade has been with oil and gas products, and AGOA has had a very limited impact on agricultural products. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the AGOA Forum last week, “Despite the best of intentions, AGOA has achieved only modest results and has not lived up to the highest hopes of a decade ago.”
There are many obstacles, but AGOA offers many opportunities as well. If necessary reforms such as broadening product coverage and simplifying eligibility rules are implemented, AGOA could help millions of Africans lift themselves out of poverty. AGOA can continue to foster reforms in African economies, provide technical support, and build platforms for dialogue. Hopefully, the AGOA Forum will continue to provide new insights and opportunities for advancing trade relations with Africa.
For more information on AGOA, please see ONE’s issue brief.
- Nathan Cole, global policy intern, ONE
Lack of funding threatens future of HIV drug therapy in developing world – New concerns about the rising costs of antiretroviral therapy dominated last week’s International AIDS Conference, where estimates indicate that there is barely enough money to pay for people currently on treatment, let alone enough to start treatment for about 5 million more. (David Brown, Washington Post)
New HIV/AIDS bill makes saving lives a priority, says Senator – Senator Tom Coburn (OK) highlights new legislation introduced last week – The HIV/AIDS Save Lives First Act of 2010 – which renews our commitment to providing life-saving treatment to millions of AIDS patients. “In these difficult economic times every dollar not spent saving a life or preventing a new infection is a dollar misspent,” said Sen. Coburn. (The Huffington Post)
Women awarded agriculture grants to boost food security – Sixty female agricultural scientists from 10 African countries received fellowships this week from African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), to help strengthen their research and leadership skills, and enhance their contributions to poverty alleviation and food security across the continent. (The Mail, Ghana)
U.N. assembly asserts water rights, some disagree – The U.N. General Assembly asserted a global right to water and sanitation in a resolution on Wednesday, but more than 40 countries abstained, saying no such right yet existed in international law. The clause called on states and international organizations to “scale up efforts” to provide drinking water and sanitation for all. (Patrick Worsnip, Reuters)
Putting women at forefront of AIDS fight is crucial – Foreign Policy fellow, Isobel Coleman, maintains that the increasing feminization of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa requires that preventative measures address the realities that drive unsafe behaviors, mainly the low status of women. (The Huffington Post)
CNN has an interview with former president Bill Clinton, who’s in Vienna for the International AIDS Crisis. You can check out the video here.
From their write-up:
With the promise of coming AIDS vaccines, former President Bill Clinton urged the world’s nations Monday not to give up on funding to prevent a calamity.
Overall support for global AIDS efforts from donor nations flattened amid last year’s global economic crisis, according to a recent analysis of 2009 funding levels from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.
Clinton spoke with CNN’s Becky Anderson at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.
“If we all do this, the consequences will be calamitous and you’ll spend more money later,” Clinton said, referring to reduced donations. “You’ll start having large numbers of people dying again, you’ll have more political instability, more economic collapse, and it’s going to cost us more money later. So it’s not only going to be a humanitarian crisis. You’ll pay now or pay later. So if it’s at all possible, hang in there,” he said.
After years of disappointment, researchers have finally found a potential basis for an HIV vaccine. Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases say they have discovered three human antibodies that neutralize more than 90 percent of the current circulating HIV-1 strains.
“There is a preliminary indication that sometime in the next two to three months, we’ll get some reports on vaccine tests, which are very hopeful for the quick development on a vaccine that actually works,” Clinton said.
In the annual “Time 100″ issue of Time Magazine out today, ONE co-founder Bono praises Bill Clinton’s humanitarian work in Africa and most recently as co-head of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He writes at length about Clinton’s long-standing love for Haiti:
That’s why he was a brilliant choice to coordinate U.S. support earlier this year, along with President George W. Bush. And a brilliant choice by the U.N. to be its envoy to Haiti in 2009. Involved long before the earthquake struck, he will be there long after the buildings are back up, working alongside Haitians to make sure things do not return to normal but are better — much better — than before.
That’s a much harder job than bricks and mortar. He knows that the catastrophe in Haiti is not, in fact, a natural one.
Tackling extreme poverty is something Clinton is no stranger to — he has worked in Africa for many years, kicking off debt cancellation, which resulted in an additional 42 million African children going to school. He had a huge hand in slashing the price of AIDS drugs for people who couldn’t afford them.
You can read the full piece here.
According to the AP this morning, former President Bill Clinton will co-chair a committee overseeing at least $3.8 billion in post-quake aid to Haiti:
The announcement was made ahead of a critical donors conference Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Haitian officials will ask representatives from more than 130 countries for reconstruction help at the meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former president’s wife, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
At the core of the quake-ravaged country’s request for help is the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), an initial 23-member body tasked with coordinating and paying out the aid money expected to flow in. It is a key step to allaying donor concerns over Haiti’s history of official corruption and political unrest who want assurances that the money will go where it is intended.
The commission will be co-chaired by Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and will also include two Haitian legislators, local authorities, union and business representatives, and a delegate from the 14-nation Caribbean Community trade bloc.
The board will also have a representative of each donor who is pledging at least $100 million over two years or $200 million of debt reduction — currently the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Venezuela and European Union along with the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank and United Nations.
